How to Make Your Screen Stay on Longer on an iPhone (4 Easy Steps)

If you have ever been following a guide online to cook something or fix something, then your phone screen has probably turned off in the middle of the process.

Keeping the iPhone screen on for a longer amount of time can help to eliminate the frustration that can be caused when your phone turns off as you were in the middle of something.

Our tutorial below will show you how to stop your iPhone screen from turning off too quickly so that you can view it for longer periods of time without touching it.

How to Make the iPhone Screen Stay On

  1. Open Settings.
  2. Choose Display & Brightness.
  3. Select Auto-Lock.
  4. Tap the desired amount of time.

Our article continues below with additional information on making the iPhone screen stay on for longer, including pictures of the steps and information on older versions of iOS.

If you are going to keep your screen on for longer periods of time, then read this how to adjust brightness on iPhone 13 tutorial and dim your screen to try and extend the battery life.

Saving battery is important for many iPhone users, and one of the biggest drains on battery is the screen.

Your iPhone will attempt to save battery by turning off the screen after periods of inactivity, but you may be wondering how to make your screen stay on longer when you use your iPhone.

Your iPhone has a feature called Auto-Lock that will tell the iPhone to lock the screen after a certain period of inactivity.

This is meant to both protect your device from unintended screen taps, while also extending battery life by turning off the screen when it is not being used.

While this is helpful if you are using the device in normal situations, you may find the frequent screen locking to be difficult if you are reading something on the screen, or if your hands are not free to keep the screen from locking, such as when following a recipe that you have found on a website.

Our guide below will show you how to set the amount of time that the iPhone will wait before it chooses to lock your screen.

If you need to know how to make your screen stay on longer because it’s something that you plan on doing a lot, then a portable iPhone charger could be a really helpful thing to have.

Video About Keeping the iPhone Screen on

How to Increase the Amount of Time That the iPhone Screen Waits Before Locking – iOS 9

Device used: iPhone 6 Plus

Software version: iOS 9.1

The steps in this article will adjust the Auto-Lock setting on your iPhone. You can specify the amount of time of inactivity for which the iPhone will wait before it automatically locks the screen.

Note, however, that illuminating the iPhone screen is one of the biggest battery drains on the device.

Additionally, if the iPhone is not locked and is in your pocket or a bag, then objects may touch locations on your screen and cause things such as pocket dialing.

You could also follow steps for how to put the iPhone on speaker and encounter problems with that as well.


Step 1: Tap the Settings icon.

open the settings menu

 
Step 2: Scroll down and select the General option.

open the general menu

 
Step 3: Scroll down and select the Auto-Lock option.

open the auto-lock menu on iphone 6
increase the auto-lock time on an iphone

 
Step 4: Select the amount of time that you would like the iPhone to wait before it locks automatically.

Note that this time is for a period of inactivity, so your iPhone screen will not lock automatically if you are touching the screen.

If you select the Never option, then your iPhone will only lock the screen when you manually press the Power button on the top or side of the device.

Related Article: If you are looking to change some settings to improve your battery life, then our background app refresh iPhone tutorial can show you one good option.

How to Increase the Auto-Lock Time in iOS 10 and Make the Screen Stay on for Longer

Device used: iPhone 7 Plus

Software version: iOS 10.1

Step 1: Tap the Settings icon.

ios 10 open settings

Step 2: Scroll down and tap Display & Brightness.

ios 10 increase auto-lock time

Step 3: Open the Auto-Lock menu.

how to make the screen stay on longer in ios 10

Step 4: Select your desired amount of time.

increase ios 10 auto lock duration

Summary – How to Make My Screen Stay on Longer on iPhone

  1. Tap the Settings icon.
  2. Select the Display & Brightness option.
  3. Open the Auto-Lock menu.
  4. Select the amount of time that you want the iPhone to wait before locking the screen.

Our guide continues below with some frequently asked questions about our how to keep phone screen on longer iPhone tutorial.

Frequently Asked Questions About How to Make it So Your Phone Stays On

How do I keep my screen on longer on an iPhone?

If your iPhone is shutting off too quickly, then you will want to change the duration of the auto-lock setting to a greater amount of time.

You can find this option by going to Settings > Display & Brightness > Auto-Lock > then choosing a higher number.

How do I keep my iPhone from locking?

While you can adjust the duration on the Auto Lock menu so that your iPhone screen stays on longer, it might not be enough for your needs.

Fortunately one of the options on that menu will let you keep your screen on indefinitely, meaning that it won’t lock unless you press the Side button to lock it manually.

You can keep your iPhone from locking by going to Settings > Display & Brightness > Auto-Lock > then choosing the Never option.

If you are looking for a how to keep phone awake longer option and aren’t going to be looking at the screen consistently, then this is the most effective method for doing so.

How do I keep my phone screen on for my iPhone?

If you are touching the screen periodically, then the iPhone screen will stay on.

Additionally, you can go to Settings > Face ID & Passcode > then confirm that the Attention Aware Features option is enabled. This will cause your screen to stay on if your iPhone detects that you are looking at the screen.

Finally, you could open the Auto-Lock option on the Display & Brightness menu and either choose one of the longer durations, or the Never option to keep the phone screen on for a longer period of time.

Note that you will almost certainly use more battery life if you use any of these how to keep screen unlocked iPhone methods.

How would I adjust the iPhone screen timeout setting to save battery life?

While this article has focused on how to make iPhone stay awake, you can adjust the auto lock settings if you are trying to extend your battery life as well.

Simply go to Settings > Display & Brightness > Auto-Lock > then change time until iPhone locks to one of the shorter settings like 30 seconds or 1 minute.

Where can I find the iPad keep screen on longer setting?

The method that we used above for how to keep phone unlocked longer works for the iPad as well.

Open the Settings app on your iPad, select the Display & Brightness tab at the left side of the screen, then choose the Auto-Lock option.

You can then select one of the longer durations if you are trying to figure out how to leave screen on longer on your iPad, or one of the shorter durations if you are trying to save battery life.

Are you concerned about excessive data usage by your iPhone, as well as improving your battery life? Learn how to turn off Background App Refresh on your device to potentially help with both of these problems.

The apps on your iPhone will periodically check for new data and update their content when you are not using them, and disabling Background App Refresh will prevent this from happening.